1.01 lakh houses to be constructed under the Manyawar Shri Kanshi Ram Ji Urban Poor Housing Scheme Lucknow: July 18, 2008
The Uttar Pradesh Government has decided to provide two-room houses
free-of-cost to the urban poor living below the poverty line, destitute
widows and handicapped under the Manyawar Shri Kanshi Ram Ji Urban Poor
Housing Scheme. The cost of these houses will be Rs. 1.75 lakh. During
the first phase (2008-09) of this scheme, as many as 101000 will be
constructed. As many as 1,500 houses per district will be constructed
in 60 districts having larger urban population, while in 11 districts
1,000 residences per district will be constructed. The State Government
has made a provision of Rs. 500 crore for the purpose and more funds
would be allocated as per the requirement. Under this scheme, 23 per
cent houses would be reserved for the SC/ST, 27 per cent for the OBC
and 50 per cent for the candidates of the general category. The
disabled persons would essentially be allotted houses on the ground
floor. Those living below the poverty line would be eligible for the
allotment. For its verification, the applicant would have to submit a
BPL certificate. For the eligibility under the destitute widows and
disabled persons category, submission of certificate would be required.
Under this scheme, the allottees would be exempted from house and water
taxes. This decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting presided over by
the Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati. During the first phase, the districts
selected for the construction of 1500 houses would be provided 10 acres
of land for the purpose, while those districts where 1000 houses would
be constructed, would be provided 7 acres of land. The arrangement of
land would be ensured under the supervision of the concerning D.M.s.
The plinth area of every housing unit would be 35 sq. mtr. and each
house would have two rooms, a kitchen, latrine, bathroom and a balcony.
The maximum cost of the house constructed under this scheme would be
around Rs. 1.75 lakh. Sixty districts, where 1500 residence per
district would be constructed, would include Kanpur Nagar, Lucknow,
Ghaziabad, Agra, Meerut, Moradabad, Varanasi, Allahabad, Bareilly,
Bulandshahr, Muzaffarnagar, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Mathura, Aligarh,
Bijnore, Gorakhpur, Saharanpur, Jhansi, Badaun, Unnao, Shahjahanpur,
Rampur, Sitapur, Hardoi, Jyotiba Phule nagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, Jalaun,
Farrukhabad, Mau, Etawah, Pilibhit, Jaunpur, Mirzapur, Rae-Bareli,
Ballia, Deoria, Azamgarh, Faizabad, Hathrus, Kanshiram Nagar, Banda,
Bahraich, Fatehpur, Barabanki, Kannaunj, Etah, Bagpat, Gazipur,
Sonebhadra, Gonda, Hamirpur, Bhadohi, Ambedkarnagar, Auraiyya,
Chandauli, Mahoba, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh and Lalitpur.
One thousand (1000) houses each will be constructed in - Balrampur,
Gautambuddha Nagar, Kushinagar, Basti, Maharajganj, Kanpur Dehat,
Kaushambi, Sant Kabirnagar, Siddhartha Nagar, Chitrakoot and Sravasti.
A district level committee would be set up under the Chairmanship of
D.M. for the supervision, implementation and monitoring of the scheme.
The senior most A.D.M. would be Secretary of the committee and district
treasury officer, co-planner of the division, executive engineer PWD,
executive engineer Jal Nigam, Municipal Commissioner of local Urban
Body or executive officer, Vice-President/Secretary of the local
Development Authority and an officer nominated by the D.M. would be its
members. The government would provide full amount allocated for the
scheme through the concerning D.M.
According to the 2001 census, about 3.29 crore people reside in urban
areas of the State. Owing to the rapid increase in the urban
population, the number of urban poor had also increased. In the next 10
years, it is expected that the urban population would increase at a
rapid pace. The State Government is committed to bring the urban poor
into the mainstream of development. The Government has accorded top
priority to provide clean and pucca houses to almost 10 lakh families
living in the slums of the various districts of the State. The scheme
has been named after Manyawar Shri Kanshiram Ji, who is the founder of
the BSP, who devoted his entire life for the cause of dalits. ********
Scheme to be continuously monitored at the Government, division and district level
Lucknow: July 18, 2008
The Uttar Pradesh Government has chalked out the timetable for the
construction of cement concrete roads and pucca drains for Gram Sabhas
selected under the Dr. Ambedkar Gram Sabha Vikas Yojana. According to
the timetable, the concerning D.M.s would pick one third Gram Sabhas
out of the total selected Gram Sabhas by July 20, 2008 for completing
the construction of C.C. road and drain. Under the first phase,
one-third Gram Sabhas would be saturated with the construction of C.C.
roads and drains as per the amended parameters. The State Government
has made a provision of Rs. 1,173 crore and additional funds would be
allocated if needed. After the completion of first phase, the
construction work of second and third phase would be undertaken. This
decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting presided over by the Chief
Minister, Ms. Mayawati.
According to the Cabinet decision, out of the one-third Gram Sabhas,
main villages of the revenue villages and one majra having
predominantly scheduled caste population would be identified. Thus, the
list of selected Gram Sabhas would be provided to the working agency
selected for the district. By August 10, the working agency would
conduct survey and prepare an initial plan and estimates for the
construction of C.C. roads and drains. The concerning D.M.s would give
administrative and financial sanctions to it. After the sanctions were
made, the concerning executive engineer would give technical sanction
to the estimate submitted by the working agency at the district level
by August 15, 2008 and after that the working agency would present its
demand for the amount required for the purpose. The working agency
would complete the formalities of tender etc. and the work of the first
phase would be started by September 15, 2008 and the same would be
completed by December 31, 2008. According top priority to the
construction of C.C. roads and drains, the State Government has
increased the sanctioning powers of executive engineers from Rs. 40
lakh to Rs. 2 crore. The Public Works Department, as a parameter, has
fixed a cost of Rs. 139.63 lakh for the construction of the average
length of 4.5 km. between two revenue villages of the single Dr.
Ambedkar Gram Sabha. It also includes construction of 200-meter long
pucca drains to connect ponds/drains (on the basis of two villages) to
be constructed outside the habitation.
For the continuous monitoring of the scheme, a district level committee
would be set up under the chairmanship of the D.M. The members of the
committee would include additional chief officer, engineer and
financial advisor, executive engineer of the PWD/R.E.S. and district
panchayati raj officer. The divisional commissioner would also monitor
the scheme and review it on a regular basis. At the government level,
the scheme would be monitored and reviewed by a high level committee
headed by the Principal Secretary, Panchayati Raj. It may be recalled
that the Cabinet during its May 23, 2008 meeting had decided to
construct C.C. roads and K.C. drains in the Gram Panchayat. Initially,
two Gram Sabhas of Lucknow district were selected by the PWD as a model
and the C.C. roads and drains were constructed with the help of U.P.
Bridge Corporation. To remove the hurdles coming in way of the
construction, a meeting was orgainsed, which was presided over by the
Chief Secretary and the final guidelines for the construction of C.C.
roads, and drains were decided at the meeting. According to the
guidelines of the government, the selected villages and majra would be
saturated with the construction of C.C. roads and drains. Keeping the
availability of funds in mind, it was decided that the construction of
C.C. roads and pucca drains would be undertaken at the main village of
the every revenue village and one majra each dominated by SC population
of every revenue village. It was also decided that C.C. roads and pucca
drains would be constructed in a total of 4,397 Gram Sabhas which
included 685 selected Gram Sabhas for the year 2007-08 but could not be
saturated and 3,712 Gram Sabhas selected for the year 2008-09. ********
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BSP supremo Mayawati and Prakash Karat, addressing the press
conference to launch a campaign against UPA, in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Photo: V.V.Krishnan
New Delhi (PTI): The Left, UNPA and BSP
on Wednesday said they will launch a nation-wide campaign against the
UPA government on nuclear deal, price rise and agrarian issues and
described the trust vote win in Lok Sabha as “immoral”.
“The UPA government might be patting
itself for whatever happened yesterday. But at the same time, it is the
defeat of the democracy,” BSP supremo Mayawati told a press conference
after a breakfast meeting with leaders of Left parties, TDP, TRS, RLD
and JD(S) among others.
Reading out from the statement adopted
at the meeting, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said that the
“UPA government may have won the vote in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday but
has lost the trust of the nation in the immoral manner in which it has
engineered this win.
“The Manmohan Singh government has lost
its moral authority. All the political parties present decided to
launch a national level campaign on pressing issues before the people,”
Karat said.
The statement was adopted by leaders of
ten parties — BSP, TDP, Forward Bloc, RSP, Janata Dal (S), RLD, IMLD,
JVM, CPI and CPI(M).
The campaign will be launched against price rise, inflation, agrarian crisis leading to farmers suicides, Karat said.
“We are also against Indo-US nuclear
deal, against communal forces, against gross misuse of government
institutions like CBI,” the CPI(M) leader said.
Condemning the “murder of democracy”, N
Chandrababu Naidu (TDP) said it was a “national shame” that the
government has stuck to power by indulging in horse-trading,
manipulation, threat and blackmail”.
“If you take into account the cross voting, the opposition has a clear majority,” Naidu claimed.
Naidu asserted that the coming together
of these parties showed that “we are the real alternative to Congress,
UPA and NDA. We will be number one in the coming days”.
In a similar statement, RLD leader Ajit
Singh said “this will provide an alternative to UPA and NDA and create
a real force in the country”.
Speaking in Hindi, former Prime
Minister and JD(S) President H D Deve Gowda assured full cooperation of
his party to the joint campaign.
Asked who will lead the new group, Mayawati evaded a direct reply saying all were equal.
On whether AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa
would be invited to join the group, Bardhan said the issue had not been
discussed. “We are proceeding step by step,” he said.
The breakfast meeting at Mayawati’s
residence was also attended by A B Bardhan and D Raja (CPI), Debabrata
Biswas (FB), T J Chandrachoodan and Abani Roy (RSP), K Yerrannaidu
(TDP), Ajay Chautala (INLD), Babulal Marandi (JVM) and Sitaram Yechury
((CPI-M).
The meeting constituted a committee to conduct the nationwide campaign, the dates of which will be announced “very soon”.
Monday,21.07.2008 (GMT)
New
Delhi, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati said on Monday that the UPA should suspend further action on
the US-India civilian nuclear cooperation agreement and leave it for
the next government to finalise it.
Claiming that the deal was a step to
make India a “slave” of the United States, she said the country should
hold its head high to safeguard its interests.
“The Government and the Prime Minister
should not make the deal a prestige issue. They should suspend the deal
for the time being. Elections are near. Let the next government take a
decision on it,” she told a press conference in New Delhi.
She noted that the deal would also
“hamper” the USD 7.4 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project
as the US was acting against Tehran in a “dangerous” manner.
“The whole world have to face the
consequences of a nuclear war between US and Iran and the blame for
which will fall on the UPA government if it goes ahead with the deal,”
Mayawati said.
Holding the UPA and Congress “guilty”
for going ahead with the deal, she said New Delhi should assert itself
for a permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council.
Asked whether the anti-Government side
has enough numbers to topple the UPA, she said, “wait till tomorrow,
you will come to know.”
However, Mayawati refused to comment
on the allegations made by Samajwadi Party leaders that the BSP was
using money power to get MPs from other parties.
On Advani’’s comment that she will not become Prime Minister, the BSP chief said, “I don'’t take note of useless talks.”
A World class education
βI don’t want to send another generation of American children
to failing schools. I don’t want that future for my daughters. I don’t
want that future for your sons. I do not want that future for America.ββ Barack Obama, Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, Des Moines, Iowa, November 10, 2007
At a Glance
Speak your mind and help set the policies that will guide this campaign and change the country.
The Problem
No Child Left Behind Left the Money Behind:
The goal of the law was the right one, but unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the
Education Department and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and
undercut its support. As a result, the law has failed to provide high-quality teachers in every classroom and
failed to adequately support and pay those teachers.
Students Left Behind:
Six million middle and high school students read significantly below their grade level. A full third of high
school graduates do not immediately go on to college. American 15 year olds rank 28th out of 40 countries
in mathematics and 19th out of 40 countries in science. Almost 30 percent of students in their first year of
college are forced to take remedial science and math classes because they are not prepared.
High Dropout Rate:
America has one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world. Only 70 percent of U.S. high
school students graduate with a diploma. African American and Latino students are significantly less likely
to graduate than white students.
Teacher Retention is a Problem:
Thirty percent of new teachers leave within their first five years in the profession.
Soaring College Costs:
College costs have grown nearly 40 percent in the past five years. The average graduate leaves college with
over $19,000 in debt. And between 2001 and 2010, 2 million academically qualified students will not go to
college because they cannot afford it. Finally, our complicated maze of tax credits and applications leaves
too many students unaware of financial aid available to them.
Barack Obama’s Plan
Early Childhood Education
- Zero to Five Plan: Obama’s comprehensive “Zero to Five” plan will provide critical support to young
children and their parents. Unlike other early childhood education plans, Obama’s plan places key emphasis
at early care and education for infants, which is essential for children to be ready to enter kindergarten.
Obama will create Early Learning Challenge Grants to promote state “zero to five” efforts and help states
move toward voluntary, universal pre-school. - Expand Early Head Start and Head Start: Obama will quadruple Early Head Start, increase Head Start
funding and improve quality for both. - Affordable, High-Quality Child Care: Obama will also provide affordable and high-quality child care to
ease the burden on working families.
K-12
-
Reform No Child Left Behind:
Obama will reform NCLB, which starts by funding the law. Obama believes
teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing
students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. He will improve the
assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for
college and the workplace and improve student learning in a timely,
individualized manner. Obama will also improve NCLB’s accountability
system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather
than punishing them. - Make Math and Science Education a National Priority: Obama will recruit math and science degree
graduates to the teaching profession and will support efforts to help these teachers learn from professionals
in the field. He will also work to ensure that all children have access to a strong science curriculum at all
grade levels. - Address the Dropout Crisis: Obama will address the dropout crisis by passing his legislation
to provide funding to school districts to invest in intervention strategies in middle school - strategies such
as personal academic plans, teaching teams, parent involvement, mentoring, intensive reading and math
instruction, and extended learning time. - Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities: Obama will double funding for the main federal
support for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more
children. - Expand Summer Learning Opportunities: Obama’s “STEP UP” plan addresses the achievement gap by
supporting summer learning opportunities for disadvantaged children through partnerships between local
schools and community organizations. - Support College Outreach Programs: Obama supports outreach programs like GEAR UP, TRIO and
Upward Bound to encourage more young people from low-income families to consider and prepare for
college. - Support English Language Learners: Obama supports transitional bilingual education and will help
Limited English Proficient students get ahead by holding schools accountable for making sure these students
complete school.
Recruit, Prepare, Retain, and Reward America’s Teachers
- Recruit Teachers: Obama will create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover
four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education, including high-quality
alternative programs for mid-career recruits in exchange for teaching for at least four years in a
high-need field or location. - Prepare Teachers: Obama will require all schools of education to be accredited. He will also create a voluntary
national performance assessment so we can be sure that every new educator is trained and
ready to walk into the classroom and start teaching effectively. Obama will also create Teacher
Residency Programs that will supply 30,000 exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need
schools. - Retain Teachers: To support our teachers, Obama’s plan will expand mentoring programs that
pair experienced teachers with new recruits. He will also provide incentives to give teachers paid
common planning time so they can collaborate to share best practices. - Reward Teachers: Obama will promote new and innovative ways to increase teacher pay that
are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. Districts will be able to design programs that
reward accomplished educators who serve as a mentor to new teachers with a salary increase.
Districts can reward teachers who work in underserved places like rural areas and inner cities.
And if teachers consistently excel in the classroom, that work can be valued and rewarded as well.
Higher Education
- Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit: Obama will make college affordable for all Americans by
creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that
the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the
cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely
free for most students. Obama will also ensure that the tax credit is available to families at the time of
enrollment by using prior year’s tax data to deliver the credit when tuition is due. - Simplify the Application Process for Financial Aid: Obama will streamline the financial aid process
by eliminating the current federal financial aid application and enabling families to apply simply by checking
a box on their tax form, authorizing their tax information to be used, and eliminating the need for a separate
application.
Barack Obama’s Record
Record of Advocacy: Obama has been a leader on educational issues throughout his career. In the Illinois State Senate, Obama
was a leader on early childhood education, helping create the state’s Early Learning Council. In the U.S.
Senate, Obama has been a leader in working to make college more affordable. His very first bill sought
to increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,100. As a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions committee, Obama helped pass legislation to achieve that goal in the recent improvements to the
Higher Education Act. Obama has also introduced legislation to create Teacher Residency Programs and to
increase federal support for summer learning opportunities.
For More Information about Barack’s Plan
Read the Pre-K to 12 Plan
Read the College Affordability Plan
Speech on Pre-K to 12 Education
Speech on College Affordability